Chapter 181: Unsolvable Problem

Because of the villagers' previous help, Qiao Xueying rushed over to assist, helping to put out fires, carry the wounded, and sometimes even using her abilities to lift collapsed roof beams.

Watching her work feverishly, Zu An did not step forward but instead walked towards the fields.

Qiao Xueying turned back, intending to call out for his help, but saw his retreating figure. She thought, "What a petty person, still angry with these villagers."

Zu An walked towards the brightest spot in the field; he needed to confirm something from his memory.

The large meteor that had exploded in the sky earlier had broken into many smaller pieces, but one relatively larger chunk remained, landing in a field about a mile from the village, creating a massive deep crater.

Before he even got close, a strong sense of intense heat washed over him. Zu An circulated his vital energy throughout his body, which only slightly alleviated the discomfort.

Even so, with his current cultivation level, he couldn't approach the center of the deep crater, where the lingering aftermath of intense burning remained. However, he didn't need to get closer; he had already found the answer he sought.

Upon seeing a line of text etched on the massive meteor, Zu An's expression became extremely strange. He couldn't help but look up at the starry sky, wondering, "Is there really such a thing as divine will in this world?"

He returned to the village, heavy-hearted. Seeing him, Qiao Xueying approached and tugged at him. "Where did you go? Since you're back, lend a hand."

Zu An shook his head. "What's the point of helping? The outcome is already set; any help would be futile."

Qiao Xueying immediately grew anxious. "How can you be like this? Yes, they weren't very friendly to you before, but you should know that was mainly due to the country's harsh laws. Later events also proved their true nature is kind. Besides, they brought us water and medicine."

"They only brought *you* water and *you* medicine," Zu An corrected.

Qiao Xueying paused. "You're not really angry about that, are you? You're a grown man; can't you be less petty?"

"It's not about that. It's just that none of this matters. You'll understand soon enough," Zu An added. "Let me advise you: don't waste your effort either."

"I can't be bothered with you," Qiao Xueying huffed, then turned back to immerse herself in disaster relief.

Anger points from Qiao Xueying: +11, +11, +11...

Seeing the anger points received in the system, Zu An was amused. This girl really held quite a grudge against him.

After another moment, the sound of horse hooves suddenly echoed from a distance. Looking in that direction, they saw an official approaching with a troop of soldiers.

The villagers immediately stirred, as in those times, no one wished to encounter officials. The village chief hastily went forward, bowing with a fawning smile. "Officer Wang, why have you come?"

Officer Wang clearly had no time for him. He waved his hand directly, ordering his subordinates to investigate. "How could I not come with such a commotion? A meteor falling from the sky is a major event. I must ascertain the facts quickly and report to the imperial court."

The village chief hesitated before asking, "Officer Wang, a disaster has befallen us here; every household has suffered heavy losses. Could the government possibly allocate some disaster relief funds..."

Before he could finish, Officer Wang cut him off. "The imperial court's expenditures are tight right now. In the north, we're fighting foreign tribes, and building the Epang Palace and the imperial mausoleum all cost money. Shouldn't you resolve such minor issues yourselves? Why bother the imperial court?"

The village chief looked troubled. "But this year's harvest was poor, and many people's homes were burned down today..."

Before he could finish, a soldier rushed over, frantically reporting, "Report! Officer Wang, this is bad! Officer Wang, this is bad!"

Officer Wang, enraged, kicked him. "Your mother's the one who's 'bad'! Can't you speak properly?"

The soldier, feeling wronged, rubbed the spot where he was kicked, pointing towards the meteor. "Over there... over there... there are words on the meteor!"

"Words!" Officer Wang's eyes lit up. Tugging at his belt, he ran towards it, thinking, "If this is a sign of heavenly auspiciousness, and I report it, the Emperor will be pleased, and I'll surely get a promotion!"

As for what the words actually said, it wasn't too important. After all, scholars could spin anything. He could find a few prominent Confucian scholars to interpret it; even a common word could be explained as an auspicious omen, since it fell from the sky, making its meaning extraordinary!

A group of soldiers jogged after him, and other villagers also followed out of curiosity. Only Chen Wei slowly walked behind, supporting his father, and whispered, "Father, why beg that corrupt official? Just by looking at him, you know he'll never allocate disaster relief funds for us. You're just humiliating yourself for nothing."

The village chief sighed. "If we don't ask, there's no chance at all. If we do, there's a sliver of hope. For the village's future, what does my personal honor or humiliation matter?"

Chen Wei said nothing, but he glared at Officer Wang's back, a look of hatred in his eyes.

Officer Wang was entirely preoccupied with thoughts of promotion, salary increases, and reaching the pinnacle of his career. When he finally saw the words on the meteor clearly, he instantly froze. A chill rose from his back, shooting straight to his head, and he could barely stand.

"Who... who carved these words!" Someone nearby quickly massaged his chest, and it took a great effort for him to calm down. Officer Wang practically leaped up, pointing at the villagers of Chen Family Village, and roared furiously, "Speak up, or none of you will escape!"

The village chief was bewildered. He pushed through the crowd to look at the meteor and saw several large characters boldly carved on it: 'The First Emperor dies, and the land divides!'

"Th-this... this..." He began trembling instantly, then couldn't catch his breath and collapsed to the ground. Fortunately, Chen Wei, quick-witted, caught him.

"Fainting? Do you think feigning unconsciousness will solve everything?" Officer Wang was furious. It was true, he could twist many dark matters into white. He could even fabricate an auspicious omen from a few random characters or a simple pattern on the meteor. But with such clear, profoundly treasonous words written on it, he wouldn't dare to interpret them loosely, even if he had ten thousand times the courage.

"My father really fainted!" Chen Wei retorted.

"I don't care if he's genuinely unconscious or faking it! You had better find out who did this immediately, or you'll all suffer the consequences!" Officer Wang declared. He then pulled out a mirror and directly reported to his superior.

Zu An observed from the side, a detached look in his eyes. He noticed the mirror was remarkably similar to a video call from his previous life. It seemed this cultivation world was truly wondrous; even without technological advancement, cultivation could achieve similar effects.

Officer Wang was seen bowing and scraping repeatedly to the person on the other end of the mirror. After their conversation, he put the mirror away and instantly wore a grim expression. "Interrogate house by house! Who carved these words? If you don't find out, you'll all die!"

Upon hearing his words, the villagers, who had been watching the spectacle unfold, erupted in an uproar. They had been enjoying the gossip, never imagining the knife would turn on them!

"It wasn't us! We were all busy putting out fires just now!"

"Yeah, I don't even know a single character! How could I carve anything?"

"This is an injustice! Everyone knows I'm blind!"

A chorus of indignant cries rose from the crowd.

Qiao Xueying tugged on Zu An's hand. "Did you see who carved the words? I was busy with disaster relief over here and didn't notice that side."

Zu An shook his head, his mood quite heavy.

"Oh, right, I think I saw that person walking towards the meteor just now," a villager suddenly exclaimed, pointing at Zu An.

"That's right, these two strangers are suspicious. It must have been them," others chimed in. Clearly, with their lives at stake, they were eager to clear their names.

Qiao Xueying was stunned. She had just kindly helped them, and this was the response she received.

"This is human nature; don't take it too much to heart," Zu An whispered, comforting her.

Qiao Xueying looked at him strangely. This guy had just been at odds with the villagers, yet now he was speaking up for them. What a strange person! "Hmph, acting like you've seen through the ways of the world. How old are you, anyway?"

"Whether one sees through things or not has nothing to do with age. Some people live their whole lives as muddle-headed fools," Zu An replied, while also keeping an eye on the soldiers' movements, ready to break out at any moment.

Hearing the villagers' accusations, Officer Wang abruptly turned to look at the two. His soldiers quietly dispersed around them, preventing any escape.

Just as Zu An was preparing to make a pre-emptive move, a flicker of doubt crossed Officer Wang's eyes, and then he burst into laughter. "So it's Censor! We've been looking for you these past few days. I never expected Censor to be here!"

"Censor?" Zu An looked bewildered. His first thought was that the man was just talking nonsense to lull him into a false sense of security, but he quickly realized this was impossible; there was no need for such a lie.

His experiences playing games and reading novels in his previous life made him immediately realize that this was likely the identity assigned to them by the quest, designed to integrate them more naturally into the storyline.

Officer Wang then glared at the villagers who had been clamoring earlier. "What nonsense are you spouting? This is Censor! How could he possibly carve such treasonous words? Don't be so eager to clear yourselves that you make groundless accusations!"

Speaking, he approached Zu An. "Censor, the imperial court has ordered us to find the culprit within a day, or we will be dismissed and executed. Your rank is the highest here; we will all follow your orders."

Zu An knew he wanted to shift responsibility, but he also understood that this was likely the key to breaking the Heavenly Seal. So, he did not refuse. "Alright, I'll take charge. You are to interrogate every household in the village separately to prevent collusion."

"Yes, sir!" Officer Wang hastily gestured, instructing his soldiers to separate and interrogate the villagers.

After all this, he came up to Zu An with a fawning expression, but Zu An impatiently sent him away. "There are so many things to do here, and we're clearly short-staffed. Why are you coming to me? Go and interrogate as well."

"Yes, yes, yes~" Officer Wang bowed repeatedly, but in his heart, he thought, "Thank goodness I managed to shift the blame this time. With Censor taking charge, even if something goes wrong, I'll only bear secondary responsibility. That's much better than being fully responsible from the start."

After he left, Qiao Xueying could no longer hold back and quickly asked, "When did you become Censor?"

Zu An replied, "This is likely the identity the Heavenly Seal assigned to us. If we find out who carved the words, we should be able to break this seal."

"Oh, in that case, it should be quite simple! It doesn't seem as dangerous as the Human Seal or the Earthly Seal at all," Qiao Xueying sighed in relief.

"You're celebrating too soon," Zu An replied. "If we can't find out, according to Qin law, both of us, as the ones in charge of the case, will surely face the death penalty. Officer Wang, as the deputy, might only be dismissed and investigated. Why else do you think he was so happy to see me?"

"That's just the worst-case scenario," Qiao Xueying argued. "In my opinion, this shouldn't be hard to investigate. There aren't many people in the village, and among the constables, there are plenty of interrogation experts. If we question them one by one, we'll surely find something out." After a moment, she added, "Besides, I can rule out some people. I saw many during the fire, and they shouldn't have had the opportunity to go to the meteor and carve words."

"I wish it were that simple," Zu An sighed deeply. "This problem is actually unsolvable." He finally understood why this was the Heavenly Seal: not only was it related to the stars, but it also led to an unavoidable death sentence.

"How can it be unsolvable?" Qiao Xueying asked, puzzled. "Also, you were just over there. How could you not have seen if anyone approached the meteor?"

"It's precisely because I saw it that I say this problem is unsolvable, because..." Zu An paused, then slowly continued, "Because when this meteor fell, that line of text was already carved on it."